Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 24 February 2008 Gail Edgar of the Belfast Telegraph reported “Our ripper horror.”

Couple entertained serial killer. An Ulster couple last night revealed how Ipswich Ripper Steve Wright was shocked by a murder which took place in a Co Antrim hotel he was staying in. The Suffolk Strangler visited Northern Ireland two years ago, at a time when cops fear he had already killed, and spent time with Elizabeth and Robert Cameron from Ballyduff, Newtownabbey.

Evil Wright, who will die in jail for the murder of five Ipswich prostitutes, was friends with Elizabeth's brother, Eddie Roberts, the landlord of the Uncle Tom's Cabin pub where Wright drank. But now Elizabeth thinks the man she initially thought was a "gentleman" should be executed for his crimes. "That picture of him gives me the creeps. He will never get out but I would be for the death penalty," she revealed. Serial killer Wright stayed at the Chimney Corner Inn near Glengormley with his girlfriend Pam Wright and Elizabeth's brother Eddie and his partner in September, 2004. And he was at the hotel when one of the doormen, former Downtown radio DJ Stephen Nelson, was viciously assaulted. Mr Nelson died six months later in March 2005 as a result of his injuries.

In an exclusive interview with Sunday Life, the couple explained that the now notorious murderer was shocked by the violent beating. Robert said: "We picked him up the next morning in the coach and he was talking about it." He was shocked. All the forensics people were out and the place had been cordoned off. "They were flabbergasted," Elizabeth added. Elizabeth says she is glad her kids, aged 13 and 9, never met Wright during his trip. "I even cooked him an Ulster fry in the house here one morning. Now my skin crawls when I see his face on TV or in the papers." Steve Wright was first invited to Ulster by Elizabeth's late father, Edward. She added: "He had been over to Eddie's bar in Ipswich and had got talking to Steve. "My dad was in the RAF and he'd been talking to him about it ." He probably said, 'You'll have to come over'. I'm so glad my dad's not here. "He would be thinking he was taken in by this man."

During his trip to Ulster, Wright and his partner spent a day on a sightseeing tour of Belfast, where they visited the City Hall and enjoyed drinks in a few pubs, including the famous Crown Bar on Great Victoria Street. The next day the fork-lift truck driver went to a service at RAF Aldergrove to commemorate the Battle of Britain. Robert said: "There was a march past and a church service with hymns and prayers in one of the aircraft hangars. He joined in with everything. Afterwards there was a meal and entertainment and he was up dancing." In late 2006 when news first broke that a serial killer was on the loose in Ipswich, Elizabeth and Robert paid close attention. "We'd been to Ipswich a couple of times and from the TV it looked very like the place where Eddie's bar is," said Elizabeth.

But when she first saw Steve Wright's face on TV after he's been charged with the murders, she was speechless. "We were glued to the TV. It was a big smack in the face. "I couldn't believe it - I nearly died." She added that the man she spent the day with was very quiet and described him as a gentleman. And while Wright's ex-wife Diane Cole revealed last week that she was subjected to vicious beatings and mental abuse at his hands, Elizabeth and Robert said Wright appeared to be a devoted partner to his girlfriend Pam. "He looked after his girlfriend because she was very nervous about being in Northern Ireland." Pam was a lovely wee woman.I've been thinking about her."She doesn't deserve this at all." Now the couple say they won't be surprised if it's discovered that Wright was responsible for other unsolved murders, including that of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh in 1986.
"How much does it take to send you over the edge?
"How could you do something like that and stay calm and collected?
"It just goes to show you don't know anybody.
"They say the quiet ones are the worst.
"When you think what he did to those girls and how he left them it makes my skin crawl," Elizabeth said.

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